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Forum Topic Requests

Want to see new forums for discussion? Put them here. Obviously we can't put every topic of discussion for every single person, but with enough support from members, new forums can be made.

A new forum request should have an overriding theme and a description of what kinds of threads would go in there. The forum list is already a mile long, so popular new forum ideas can't be added on a whim.

Sometimes a simple modification of the description for an existing forum is enough to cover your forum idea. Do consider that before making suggestions (suggestions for how to improve current forums are also welcome here).

I'd like ot see an "Ask Edmonton" section ( Name not important, ) where we could ask questions either to be answered by the "powers that Be" or other members of the board that just happen to be in the know.

For example in discussions it has been mentioned using the top deck of the high level for numerous things including high speed rail or 3 lanes of traffic. Does anyone know if the bridge was stressed to handle that when renovated some years ago and what effect it would have on lifespan? I've noticed driving up Scona Hill a large crane to the south east, possibly in the Bonnie Doon area... does anyone know what's goiong up there?

Questions like these, and many others occur when talking about or looking about the city. Sometimes htey come up naturally in a thread and can be answered there, but there should be a place for people to ask question, and others who may be able to answer them can look without reading every post on every thread.

I can understand the complaint but there are ways to keep up with new threads. Have you tried subscribing or looking at the Latest Threads feature? The RSS feed for that is probably the easiest way to keep up with things. What I do every day is:

1. Refresh my Latest Threads RSS feed
2. Scan through the topics
3. Go to the interesting topics
4. Either post or else turn on "notify me when a reply is posted" in the thread

After that it's pretty easy as long as you check e-mail at reasonable intervals. Hope this helps at least a little.

But unfortunately I haven't had much of an opportunity to try them all out. Maybe someone else has a suggestion they want to throw out for IKAN104?

EDIT: Oh I did manage to forgot about a another great Google web reader called Google Reader. It's been making waves recently so I thought I'd throw that out there as a decent place to start if you are interested in an online RSS reader.

Can I have a button on every page that takes me back to the "view new posts since last visit" search page, please ok thnx.

I'll put it in the queue. The only problem I have with this is that this is a "search" function. So whenever you click on the button it goes through the entire forum almost finding what you are looking for. It is pretty intense on the server so it really isn't meant to be constantly ckicked on. Even if i put it on every page you will likely get a "you cannot perform a search so soon after you have performed the last one" message.

I'm a one man server killer.
Seriously though, its the one feature I use to basically read everything posted here, so for me its pretty important.
Hopefully we never see huge lags due to server overloading, I have seen that really put a damper on discussion at other sites.

Heh.. probably not that bad but it is important to try and maintain board performance. You might not be the only one to be encouranged to use this function if it is so convenient...

I am not sure how open you are to this but if that function was the main way I navigated the site, I would open up that page, and then open up new browser tabs for each topic that I was interested in. So in that way you get all the new topics, but you don't need to have constant access to that particular button (and constantly need to perform new searches).

Re: Forum Topic Requests

Originally Posted by Ceres

... A new forum request should have an overriding theme and a description of what kinds of threads would go in there. The forum list is already a mile long, so popular new forum ideas can't be added on a whim...

Ceres,

How about instituting a "daily news" forum that would be somewhat "all inclusive" in regard to potential thread topics (i.e. anything "current" on that particular day being posted from another sources for information but posted without comment or added opinion)?

Those that receive further comment or opinion (i.e. become c2e threads) could then be moved to an appropriate forum. That way not only are forums being "reserved" for "active threads" but one forum would provide a "daily update" in one place. Those updates that do not develop into threads could either stay posted or be archived after some point in time into a weekly (?) monthly (?) history without taxing the overall hierarchy of naming/tracking threads and forums.

This would also cut down on the "latest threads" traffic for both sending and receiving depending on whether it would be included or not and how.

Re: Forum Topic Requests

Originally Posted by kcantor

Originally Posted by Ceres

... A new forum request should have an overriding theme and a description of what kinds of threads would go in there. The forum list is already a mile long, so popular new forum ideas can't be added on a whim...

Ceres,

How about instituting a "daily news" forum that would be somewhat "all inclusive" in regard to potential thread topics (i.e. anything "current" on that particular day being posted from another sources for information but posted without comment or added opinion)?

Those that receive further comment or opinion (i.e. become c2e threads) could then be moved to an appropriate forum. That way not only are forums being "reserved" for "active threads" but one forum would provide a "daily update" in one place. Those updates that do not develop into threads could either stay posted or be archived after some point in time into a weekly (?) monthly (?) history without taxing the overall hierarchy of naming/tracking threads and forums.

This would also cut down on the "latest threads" traffic for both sending and receiving depending on whether it would be included or not and how.

Ken

^ This is a great idea Ken! (I am sure that the fact that I like this idea is no surprise to anyone).

Since I already do a daily news / media monitoring for issues (of sorts) I would love to populate, moderate and maintain such a forum if it is instituted..

How about a new forum for Health, Research and Innovation? (Nano-tech and even some of the billion-dollar projects could also be part of such a forum.)

The U of A and Capital Health are all doing wonderful stuff (often!) here in Edmonton and it is tricky to know where to start a thread as “Announcements” or “Off topic/General discussion” or even “Education” does not always capture the essence of the topic.

How about a new forum for Health, Research and Innovation? (Nano-tech and even some of the billion-dollar projects could also be part of such a forum.)

The U of A and Capital Health are all doing wonderful stuff (often!) here in Edmonton and it is tricky to know where to start a thread as “Announcements” or “Off topic/General discussion” or even “Education” does not always capture the essence of the topic.

why not implement the "daily news" forum first so it's not tricky at all knowing where to post quoted items and let the respondent - based on the direction his reply takes start the discussion thread (which may them be a rant or a rave or political or buildings and architecture or something new like health, research and innovation). it would also put all of the daily news in one place in one forum so all the forums would not have to be monitored to catch "new posts". it would also keep the existing forums less cluttered without having to add a host of new ones to achieve that.

I think that a Police Blotter or Police forum would be handy. There are many posts on threads dealing with speeders, crime, bylaw, and other police issues that get dumped in rants rather than having a forum of its own. It might get more attention by EPS.

Advocating a better Edmonton through effective, efficient and economical transit.

This could already exist somewhere, or it might be too much of a hassle to organize, but a section for "Edmonton's Great Streets" would be nice, given that the quality of a city’s streets and street life plays such a major role in the image and livability of any city. It wouldn’t have any new content necessarily, but would combine bits and pieces from a bunch of different forums into a more coherent form – a discussion on “Stony Plain Road” for instance could combine rants/raves about how its current state, new developments , architecture, the implications of the future LRT, concerts, etc.